California downgrades intentional HIV exposure from felony to misdemeanor...

[Johnny1A]

The State of California, under the 'leadership' of Jerry Brown and utterly dominated by a particularly pure instance of the national ruling class (which is an alliance of lefty social liberals and businessmen who also happen to be social liberals) has decided to lower the legal violation of knowingly exposing someone else to HIV infection without warning them from a felony to a misdemeanor.

http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-gov-brown-downgrades-from-felony-to-1507331544-htmlstory.html

The supposed ideological debates the American media present as 'the national divide' are not really the national divide.  They are sometimes a proxy for it, but the real underlying debate is an argument about basic morality, the basic nature of reality.  Any non-American wondering why Roy Moore was able to trounce his supposedly more 'mainstream' GOP rivals should keep in mind that it's partly because the Roy Moore's are willing to address that underlying divide, while the 'mainstream' GOP wants to pretend it isn't there.

The madness in California is an example of what is driving the public to actions like giving nuclear bombs to Donald Trump and replacing 'mainstream' Republicans with Roy Moores.

[Warren Ellis]

Frankly, if you are deliberately infecting others with diseases, any communicable disease, that should be a felony.

This is enraging. And I get the feeling if Brown and others got deliberately infected through that means, they would wish it wasn't a misdemeanor.

[Warren Ellis]

"Gov. Jerry Brown signed a bill Friday that lowers from a felony to a misdemeanor the crime of knowingly exposing a sexual partner to HIV without disclosing the infection.

The measure also applies to those who give blood without telling the blood bank that they are HIV-positive.

Modern medicine allows those with HIV to live longer lives and nearly eliminates the possibility of transmission, according to state Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) and Assemblyman Todd Gloria (D-San Diego), authors of the bill.

“Today California took a major step toward treating HIV as a public health issue, instead of treating people living with HIV as criminals,” Wiener said in a statement. “HIV should be treated like all other serious infectious diseases, and that’s what SB 239 does.”

Supporters of the change said the current law requires an intent to transmit HIV to justify a felony, but others noted cases have been prosecuted where there was no physical contact, so there was an argument intent was lacking.

Brown declined to comment on his action."


I like how they try to hide that deliberately infecting others with a disease has nothing to do with social mores on how we treat those who are infected with HIV. You know, I truly bet if any of these politicians got infected through this, their high-minded moralizing will be dropped faster than a hot potato.

[Johnny1A]

You would think so.  I would think so.  But the funny thing is that I'm not 100% certain of that in every case.

There was a woman, a worker in a migrant center in Europe, who was raped by one of the refugees.  She hesitated and delayed reporting it for a while, and when asked why, she said she was afraid that the incident would be used as a motive to strengthen border security and limit immigration.

Think about that. 

Granted, she's not a politician, she's an immigration activist, and immigration is not HIV (or other disease) transmission.  But the psychology is related, there's a genuine fanaticism driving the left these days on subjects like AIDS, gender identity, and immigration.

[Warren Ellis]

You know, they should've just made it a felony to deliberately infect others with a disease instead of reducing AIDS to the level of a misdemeanor, down to the level of other communicable diseases.

You get infected with AIDS, you have a disease for life. It is still not curable. Newer medicines have allowed AIDS victims to regain most of their lives, unlike before when it was a death sentence, but reducing it to a misdemeanor because of newer medicines sets a bad precedent. Frankly, they never should've had any communicable disease be considered "misdemeanor" in the first place, like they did with other diseases besides AIDS. They should've just upped the punishment to felony for all the other diseases as well.

[Johnny1A]

On Monday, October 16, 2017 at 1:27:17 PM UTC-5, Warren Ellis wrote:

You know, they should've just made it a felony to deliberately infect others with a disease instead of reducing AIDS to the level of a misdemeanor, down to the level of other communicable diseases.

You get infected with AIDS, you have a disease for life. It is still not curable. Newer medicines have allowed AIDS victims to regain most of their lives, unlike before when it was a death sentence,

Plus the fact that the drugs are in a race with the virus, it takes constant effort to keep the drug cocktails effective as the virus mutates.

Also, those retroviral drugs and the rest of the treatments are not cheap.  The cost of keeping HIV patients alive is very high, either on the patient personally, his/her insurance, or the taxpayer.  So even if death can be delayed, and suffering alleviated, this is still a big cost to the individual and the society.  It's not a minor act. 

[Warren Ellis]

Yes. I understand they've gotten cheaper but they still cost a pretty penny unfortunately.